How to save my story from becoming Twilight

I just had an idea of writing a vampire story and now I don't want it to be criticized for being similar to twilight I have seen many other books in which there's a vamp and a human still I am not sure, It is set in Baltimore but I want to pull it away from Washington
OH GOD

There's been other stories of vampires YA since Twilight (The Vampire Academy comes to mind), so you'll probably be fine as long as the plot and characters aren't carbon copies. Since the mythology of vampires is very loose, you can always set your vampires immediately apart just by changing their weakness or strengths. Vampire societies can vary wildly too. I'd recommend looking up some vampire information and you can pick and choose what you do or do not want for your vampires, or you can go create brand new quirks to vampirism.

Just have some fun with it and try to focus more on creating your own characters and story rather than worrying about other stories--that can wait until later drafts.

John's right. When you see a hot trend, every amateur writer is penning a story like it, hoping to jump on the bandwagon. Start your own trend and have people chase you.

But as for being similar to another story, forget that. In any case, there are only seven basic plots. So if your story is so well written that the reader closes the cover and says, "I really loved that story," no one cares that it's like another story. Cinderella, a story in which a downtrodden person, who deserves a break, is given one and shines, is retold daily, yet still we buy and love them.

It's kind of like a scout campfire skit. It doesn't matter if you've seen it before, it's how well this troop does it.

Vampire books have sold well since before Bram Stoker (yes, I know Dracula wasn't a best seller of its time, but he's well known and it certainly ended up picking up steam over time)--no matter how over saturated the market, the fan base will always want more. Now, since it is over saturated, it's much harder to sell your book, but let's say you take a few years anyway, just getting your book finished, edited, and then re-edited. By that time, the market might be wanting more again.

So, long story short--vampires never go out of style and a pretty safe bet.